The present invention relates to a display system and method which enables the user to display in large dimensions on a re-usable support, graphics such as line drawings, and also photographic reproductions having variations of image intensity, e.g. half-tones. The system and method is applicable to black and white or color.
When it is desired to display commercial or informative graphics or photographic matter, it usually requires a support on which the material to be advertised in glued or attached.
Another common technique is to use mechanical display, but these will only include letters or digits, excluding all graphics or pictures; and usually this is in one color only. One of the other commonly used procedures consists of using multiple colored light bulbs, or LED's, but the cost of such a system is high if one wants good definition, i.e. the luminance would not be strong enough to provide strong contrasts when such displays are directly exposed to direct light.
One object of the present invention is to provide a continually re-usable support for the display, and to be able to receive and "print" characters, drawings or color/monochrome pictures, the entire display being readily visible even in direct sunlight.
Another object of the invention is to permit the use of the same support to display as many subjects as desired without having to remove an old sheet or the like and attach a new one.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a display system which can be fed with iconographic documents electrically encoded, by means of a telephone line, leased line, radio transmission or satellite transmission, enabling a computer center to feed and manage the displays which can be distributed over a geographic area, the size, and the number of subjects to be displayed being in accordance with the location and the hour of the day.